Gronk Squared: Dan Gronkowski signs with New England

Posted By
Lindsay Jones
On
September 7, 2011 @ 10:26 am
In
Former Broncos,Tight End |
1 Comment

Former Broncos tight end Dan Gronkowski wasn’t out of work long.

After he was waived by the Broncos on Saturday, Gronkowski has signed with the New England Patriots[1]. That’s good enough news on its own for a good young player whose time in Denver was brief. But I can only imagine how excited Gronkowski is to be a Patriot, alongside his younger brother Rob, the Patriots’ second-year star-in-the-making tight end.

The Gronkowski’s are one of the NFL’s most interesting families[2] — with three brothers all currently in the league. (Chris, who is in between Dan and Rob in the brother birth order) is a fullback who was just picked up by the Colts after being released by the Cowboys. There are two other brothers — an older brother who played collegiate baseball, and the youngest, who is a freshman football player at Kansas State.

The brothers grew up playing all sorts of sports together and working out in the gym their dad built in the basement of their family home in upstate New York.

The fact that the two tight ends released by the Broncos at the final cuts — Gronkowski and Dante Rosario — have both been signed by new teams shows just how legit the competition was at that position. The Broncos must have quite a bit of confidence in the two rookies, Julius Thomas and Virgil Green, to keep them over the veterans.